Ubuntu 12.04 under Hyper-V on Windows 8

Recently a number of the Hyper-V drivers for Linux made it into the main kernel branch. This means that native support for Hyper-V is starting to turn up in a number of Linux distributions. Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is an example of a new Linux release with Hyper-V support “out of the box”. To try this out for myself – I grabbed the 32-bit desktop install media from Ubuntu.com and fired up a virtual machine:

After the initial splash screen, I was pleasantly surprised by the first indication of the improved Hyper-V support. Before even install Ubuntu, on the first page of setup, I already had integrated mouse support.

I chose to Install Ubuntu and was then presented with a page that confirmed that I had enough space, and I had a valid internet connection. This was also interesting to note, as I had not added a legacy network adapter to the virtual machine. This meant that Ubuntu had already recognized and loaded drivers for the Hyper-V high-performance network adapter.

After this – the installation was fairly pedestrian…

The only quirk I encountered was that at the end of the initial installation phase – the virtual machine failed to reboot automatically. It sat at this page for about a minute until I manually reset it:

But after that it booted perfectly:

And I confirmed that applications and network connectivity was working correctly:

My favorite part of this was seeing this message:

“No proprietary drivers are in use on this system”. Correct! The Hyper-V drivers are now part of Linux, under GPL.

This is not new. Linux Kernels have been making use of hv* drivers for a while now. I think it started in 2.6.30 or something. It was just a matter of using the right version and build. Typically, Ubuntu Server made those available since v10 natively (after a few updates of the kernel packages).

The Hyper-V console isn't really meant to run and interact with desktop operating systems full-time, it's more to aid in the initial setup and configuration. You will want to use other methods of interaction with the client via some remote desktop software (NoMachine's NX comes to mind since it has integrated audio support, but you could also use XDMCP or VNC) to get alternate screen resolutions.

I don't agree with "run and interact with desktop operating systems full-time". There may be multiple reasons why I might want multiple operating systems with the same experience as a full machine even in the virtual enviornment.

Mouse Integration is crappy, screen resolution is wierd. There is no integration support for debian operating systems. I had a hard time even getting the Intergration service for Redhat, which runs on 95% of Fortune 500 companies.

What bothers me is that Ubuntu running in a VMWare Workstation on my Windows 8 computer installed on a MacBook Pro with Retina screen doesn't have any problem exploiting the whole screen when Hyper-V is limited to a poor way tooooo little screen unusable on my Mac :

hyper-v is usually use for servers, the "connect" in hyper-v manager is use for admins (I don't expect that to have a good user experience). The best way to utilize hyper-v is thru remote desktop.

Myself hosted a Linux Ubuntu 12.04 in hyper-v for my web deployment LAMP. The advantage of that instead of virtualbox, is hyper-v is not user/login specific, you you won't be affect of any log-on and off. Resources consumption in hyper-v is also way lower compared using virtualbox.

For my own setup, if I use the "Connect…" feature of Hyper-V manager, then the graphics works but the resolution is unchangeable. If I use Remote Desktop (by connecting to the IP address of Ubuntu, obtained via "ifconfig"), then the resolution is fullscreen but the graphics is slow.

I've spent about 3 hours total of trying to get both to work to on avail. Would it have been so difficult for Hyper-V to allow different resolutions?

Ok, so Windows 8 requires SLAM (Second Level Access Memory) in order to provide "good video interaction for developers" . At the same time, we, the developers, cannot use it in full screen, since "The Hyper-V console isn't really meant to run and interact with desktop operating systems". So, why do I need SLAM support into my CPU to access the virtual machines via MSTSC?

I'm getting the following event error, are there Linux Integration Services for 4.0 yet? Its keeping my VM from resetting properly I believe.

Thanks,

Devan

Log Name: System

Source: Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-VmSwitch

Date: 5/19/2013 9:54:46 AM

Event ID: 27

Task Category: (1019)

Level: Warning

Keywords:

User: SYSTEM

Computer: faimlyroom-PC

Description:

Networking driver in MythVM loaded but has a different version from the server. Server version 4.0 Client version 3.2 (Virtual machine ID DD598AEC-684F-4289-A20D-9D1F3B2370E0). The device will work, but this is an unsupported configuration. This means that technical support will not be provided until this problem is resolved. To fix this problem, upgrade the integration services. To upgrade, connect to the virtual machine and select Insert Integration Services Setup Disk from the Action menu.